Mentors

[Mobasser]

When my older brother came home from the service in 1970, I was 13yrs old. We stayed at my grandfather's farm that summer, and fished almost every evening. He was a much better fisherman than me. He's the first one that taught me how to cast to targets, choosing the correct lures, tying knots, and everything else he knew about fishing for bass. My dad and grandpa liked to fish too, they just didn't have as much time for it. Later, when I started in carpentry work, I met a guy 20yrs older than me. He taught me more advanced stuff, plastic worm fishing, structure fishing, etc, and got me into reading some good info too. We fished together a lot, and entered some club tournaments together too. Now my grandson Aiden is my main fishing partner, and it's been a rewarding experience trying to teach him, and watch his fishing skills improve. Having a patient teacher when your starting out can make a big difference in this sport. There's so much to learn. Who taught you how to fish for bass?

[The Bassman]

My dad instilled the love of fishing in me. That said, we rarely did very well. I guess my "skill mentor" was media such as magazines, TV, internet, and my own experiences. One would like to think that everyone had a teacher but I bet I'm not alone.

[Bluebasser86]

My dad introduced me to fishing initially, mainly catfishing. I taught myself most everything I know about bass fishing from reading magazines and watching TV shows and learning through trial and error on the water.

[Gundog]

My uncle would take me, my brother and all of his kids fishing every couple of weekends. Of course, as kids we rarely spent much time fishing. We were more about exploring and running around in the woods. As I and my uncle have gotten older we still reminisce about those days and the few fish we did catch. I share pictures of fish I've caught with him and he still gives me advice but mostly encouragement to keep on enjoying the sport we both love. He's 80 years old this year and can't fish or hunt anymore but I'm so glad he shared his passion for the outdoors with me and my brother.

[Joshua van Wyk]

My father got me started when I was really young but the only bait we knew how to use was a weightless senko. I taught myself everything else I now know, bassresource and tactical Bassin deserve a lot of credit there.

[jbsoonerfan]

My Papa Jake was the person who influenced my love of fishing. We would go to a pond and he would tell me where to throw and why. If there were sticks sticking up he would tell me to throw there. If it was mossy and there was a break in the moss he would tell me to work it there. He used maybe 4 - 8 different lures and probably caught more fish in his life than I ever will.

[Glaucus]

8 hours ago, The Bassman said:

My dad instilled the love of fishing in me. That said, we rarely did very well. I guess my "skill mentor" was media such as magazines, TV, internet, and my own experiences. One would like to think that everyone had a teacher but I bet I'm not alone.

I learned from the internet. 

[ww2farmer]

My grandfather taught me to fish in general. I am a self taught bass fisherman for the most part. A few local guys through the years have helped me, namely BR member wnybassman, specifically with tournament fishing and smallmouth fishing. 

 

Even though I say I am "self taught"...just about everyone I have ever fished with, serious or novice angler alike...has shown me something I can use to improve. 

[N Florida Mike]

My dad got me started, fishing with him almost exclusively til I was 13-14. Then I had 2 friends that taught me bass fishing basics.After them, Ive learned mostly by experience, hours on the water, and occasionally gain some insight from fishing with friends .

Believe it or not, I have learned a lot from my middle son, Joe. I taught him to fish, but he is really good at saltwater fishing. So good that I defer to him in that arena. After all , he commercial fishes part of the year.

For me, a mentor is someone you personally spend time with but I have learned a lot from bassresource and all the interaction between us.

 

[Catt]

1965: Spend the entire summer working on my uncle Joe Addison's charter fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico and learned how to locate deep water structure.

 

1972: Started bass fishing seriously on Toledo Bend at my father-in-law's camp.

 

1974: Joined two bass clubs whose members included John Torian, John Hall, John Dean, Villis P "Bo" Dowden SR, Harold Allen, Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin, & Zell Roland.

 

1976: Attended a seminar in Houston Texas that totally changed my outlook on bass fishing. The man putting on that seminar was Elwood " Buck" Perry, not only did I buy his books but I became a devout student of his teachings.  I took what Buck taught about deep structure fishing and applied it to Toledo Bend. Not only did the quantity of bass I caught go up but so did quality.

 

I'm an avid student of the following:  Elwood " Buck" Perry & Bill Murphy: Finding & understanding deep structure

Douglas Hannon & Shaw Grisby: Understanding bass behavior

Rick Clunn: Mental aspects of bass fishing

Bobby Murray: Big bass can be caught on light line.

 

That's the who's now for the what!

I was introduce to night fishing in 1973 and have continued until the present. These years of having limited or no visibility has heightened my awareness of what is taking place below the surface. This heightened awareness has made me better at fishing deep water where feeling the bite is harder than finding structure.

[Jleebesaw]

Dad started me fishing. He was mostly pan fish and walleye fishing. He didn't do a lot if bass fishing. We live near an army base (fort drum) and there was a family who moved Into a house on our street who's father was in the army. We became friends with them. They would go to our hunting camp and go fishing with us. Those 2 brothers and their father got me into bass fishing. I learned a lot from them. Then over the years I have learned little things here and there from many different people I've fished with. A guy I work with got me into electronics a couple years ago. I had always had simple 2d sonar that I really didn't use on my boats. I fished with him and quickly learned how useful side imaging is. Getting turned on to electronics by him was the most game changing thing I've learned since dad taught me the palymar knot.

[scaleface]

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

My dad introduced me to fishing initially, mainly catfishing. I taught myself most everything I know about bass fishing from reading magazines and watching TV shows and learning through trial and error on the water.

Same here.

I was allowed to go pretty much anywhere i wanted,  unsupervised. I would ride my bike to the Mississippi river just a couple of miles away or ride it to a large bay 8 miles away .  I fished for every species . Whatever the hot bite was thats what I fished for . My Dad worked at a lock and dam on the Mississippi and I often went with him . He would put his eight hours in   all shifts  and I would fish down-stream  .

[TOXIC]

Although I got the passion to fish from my maternal grandfather and my father, I have had only one teacher that gave me hard lessons and just rewards when I did something right. 

 

The fish.  

[Fishes in trees]

While my dad was a nice guy, his idea of a vacation was scotch, TV and AC.   I think he took me fishing twice, when I was 8 or 9 and neither one of us had a particularly good time.   I don't know when the fishing bug bit me, but it did and I can't remember a time when I didn't want to fish.

I remember thinking most of the Outdoor magazines at the time were geared toward hunting with an occasional fishing article thrown in, and that article that was thrown in focused mostly on the aesthetics of fishing rather than the nuts  bolts of catching.

Fishing Facts came along and that helped a lot.  In-fisherman came along and that helped more, once ou got used to how technical & wordy some of the early articles were.  Some of them were literally like reading journal research papers.  Late 70's - early 80's I fell in with several professors in college - don't really know how that happened as they were in Ag & Business and I was a grad student in Education, but we hung out together and a common interest was getting better at fishing in general and bass fishing in particular.

 

They had disposable income and were into gear - I was a grad student with limited disposable income.   I acquired pretty good hand me downs and they experimented with different brands of rods & reels.

 

So I guess my "mentors" were the group of guys I fell in with when I was a grad student.   I think we all taught each other.   Starting the second year we hung out together, 3 or the professors bought boats and that's the first time I got to fish out of a boat and realized that the mechanics of boat fishing and bank fishing were significantly different.

 

2 of those guys are dead now, the other 2 are retired and we each live more than a days drive from each other.  We talk on the phone from time to time to compare notes.

[volzfan59]

I guess my dad got my into fishing sitting on the bank bluegill fishing. I also caught my first smallie fishing with him. This was when I was a kid.

 

Fast forward to the late 80's when I gave up my stock car racing hobby. My next door neighbor was a serious tournament angler. Anyway, he took me bass fishing numerous times and I've been hooked ever since. He taught me and both of my son's about bass fishing. I'm still thankful to him and REALLY into bass fishing. The boys are now men with wives and families. They're still interested, but not ate up with it like dad is.

 

Funny thing is, I got out of racing due to the crazy expensive hobby it was. Take up fishing he said, it's cheaper. Yeah, sure it is. Man, I love it!!!

 

 

[davecon]

While it was my grandfather that got me started(this whole thing is his fault) I am pretty much self taught.

 

I grew up in an era with no social media, no magazines devoted to bass, no fishing television shows, etc. you just had to figure it out yourself. To top it off, I’m in Florida where good/experienced fishermen wouldn’t give you the time of day, especially a teenager. They wouldn’t say sh#% if they had a mouthful !

 

Where to fish ?, what rod ?, what reel ?, which lures when ? How to work a lure? Seasons ?

 

I’ll admit it was a long tough road but when you learn the hard way you tend not to forget it.

 

It amazes me the info available at one’s fingertips today ! 

 

I wish I had had a fraction of that data available when I was learning.

[Mobasser]

I agree. Many young guys learn much faster now than years ago. Internet, videos, etc help all this. Nothing wrong at all with learning on your own. Actually fishing is still the best way to learn

[Munkin]

Mostly self taught but I had been fishing with several family members when I was young. At 12 several of the local kids decided to go fishing by ourselves at the local creek. I dove in 100% because I liked it so much and ended up spending all my time and money towards fishing. That wads 25 years ago and occasionally I go back and fish that creek because that is where my passion started. Used to watch the fishing hole and Bassmasters to get tips in the late 80's which was my only source of information at the time.

 

Allen

[MassYak85]

On 4/18/2019 at 5:10 PM, The Bassman said:

My dad instilled the love of fishing in me. That said, we rarely did very well. I guess my "skill mentor" was media such as magazines, TV, internet, and my own experiences. One would like to think that everyone had a teacher but I bet I'm not alone.

Same for me. My dad introduced me to fishing but I never had a "skill" mentor. His idea of bass fishing was chucking and winding a spinnerbait all day. It wasn't until I got really into it in high school that we both kind of learned together. 

 

Like you said, most of my knowledge has come from YouTube and the internet. Guys like Glenn, Tactical Bassin, and of course this forum. But I think my lack of someone to physically go fishing with that was more experienced than me has made learning slower than I'd like. I havent' really gotten to experience those days of someone kicking my a** and learning from it. Instead it's getting skunked and having to sit back and really think why...

[Joshua van Wyk]

On 4/19/2019 at 8:13 PM, MassYak85 said:

Same for me. My dad introduced me to fishing but I never had a "skill" mentor. His idea of bass fishing was chucking and winding a spinnerbait all day. It wasn't until I got really into it in high school that we both kind of learned together. 

 

Like you said, most of my knowledge has come from YouTube and the internet. Guys like Glenn, Tactical Bassin, and of course this forum. But I think my lack of someone to physically go fishing with that was more experienced than me has made learning slower than I'd like. I havent' really gotten to experience those days of someone kicking my a** and learning from it. Instead it's getting skunked and having to sit back and really think why...

I think you summed this up very nicely. I can relate to this in every way!

[schplurg]

Glenn and Youtube.